One of the “great living American composers” (New York Times), Anthony Davis is distinguished for his important contributions to opera, and for his symphonic, choral and chamber works. He is the first to write in a new American genre: opera on a contemporary political subject.

Davis received the Pulitzer Prize in Music for The Central Park Five, which premiered at Long Beach Opera in 2019. The libretto by Richard Wesley is based on the true story of Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana Jr., and Korey Wise, five teens wrongfully convicted for the rape of a white female jogger in Central Park. In May 2025, Detroit Opera, which commissioned the full orchestration, presented The Central Park Five in a production directed by Nataki Garrett and conducted by Anthony Parnther. On August 28, 2026, the recording of the Long Beach Opera performances was released on Platoon.

Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, featuring a libretto by Thulani Davis and a story by Christopher Davis, has taken on an almost mythic stature since its 1986 New York City Opera sold-out world premiere. A new production — directed by Robert O’Hara and co-produced by five opera companies — originated at Detroit Opera in 2022 and opened at the ​​Metropolitan Opera in 2024. The 1992 and 2022 “X” albums were nominated for GRAMMY Awards®.

Amistad, with a libretto by Thulani Davis, recalls the mutiny on the enslaver ship Amistad. Tania, with a libretto by Michael-John LaChiusa, remembers Patricia Hearst’s abduction. Wakonda’s Dream, with a libretto by Yusef Komunyakaa, follows a contemporary Ponca family.

Davis’s new opera, Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote, exploring challenges faced by families crossing the border, premieres in 2026 in San Diego and Tijuana. In The Reef, featuring a libretto by Joan Ross, Davis relocates two former lovers chronicled in Edith Wharton’s novel to a sugar plantation in Martinique.

Davis’s orchestral works have been performed by the Atlanta Symphony, Boston Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, and San Francisco Symphony. He made his Broadway debut composing for Tony Kushner’s Angels inAmerica. His choral music includes Voyage Through Death to Life Upon these Shores, about the slave trade, and Restless Mourning, evoking the September 11 tragedy.

Clarinetist Anthony McGill — principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic — has frequently performed You Have the Right to Remain Silent. The concerto was inspired by the composer’s personal experience during a traffic stop: while en route to a concert, Davis was pulled over by the police and held at gunpoint for 45 minutes because he “matched the description” of a suspect fleeing a robbery. During the performance, musicians recite the Miranda rights while playing. Davis has said that parts of You Have the Right to Remain Silent became the basis for The Central Park Five.

Davis made his Broadway debut in 1993 composing music for Tony Kushner’s critically acclaimed play Angels in America: Part One: Millennium Approaches, and for its companion piece, Part Two: Perestroika. He has made important contributions in choral music; Voyage Through Death to Life Upon these Shores is an a cappella choral work about the slave trade and the Middle Passage, also inspired by Hayden’s poem. Restless Mourning, an oratorio for mixed chorus and chamber ensemble with live electronics, offers a powerful evocation of the September 11 tragedy, set to poetry by Quincy Troupe and Allan Havis, and to Psalm 102.

Davis is also known for his cutting-edge virtuoso performances as a solo pianist and as the leader of Episteme, a distinctive ensemble of disciplined interpreters and provocative improvisers in equal measure. Davis “writes music that forges composition and improvisation into what he calls ‘a seamless and coherent musical structure,’ resulting in “music that is both sensuous and intellectually engaging” (The New York Times).

A graduate of Yale University, Davis holds the Cecil Lytle Endowed Chair in African American Music at the University of California, San Diego. In 2021, he was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The following year, he was honored with the Shadow and Act Award from the Ralph Ellison Foundation. He previously earned the “Lift Every Voice” Legacy Award from the National Opera Association (2008) and a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation (2006).

Davis has also been honored by the New York Foundation of the Arts, the National Endowment of the Arts, the Massachusetts Arts Council, the Carey Trust, Chamber Music America, the Meet the Composer Wallace Fund, the Multi-Arts Production Fund with the Rockefeller Foundation, and OPERA America. He has been an artist fellow at the MacDowell Colony, Civitella Ranieri and at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center in Italy.